Scholarship search services
and financial aid advice services are common these days. Unfortunately, too
many of these for-profit companies charge high rates to provide information
that can be found elsewhere for free.

Charging a lot for a service
isn’t illegal – what makes some of these companies fraudsters
is that they collect money to find scholarships for students but never provide
the information, or they misrepresent themselves as a government agency in
order to appear legitimate and attract customers, or they guarantee they’ll
get the student full funding for college (and then don’t). Still, although
it’s obviously legal to charge for services genuinely rendered, you
should keep reading if you want to save yourself some money…

If you’re searching
the Internet for scholarships and visit a site that asks for your credit card
or another form of payment before it’ll help you find funding, you might
want to keep searching. Similarly, if you or your parents are contacted by
an unfamiliar organization that invites you to an “interview”
or “seminar” about preparing and paying for college, do your homework.
Ask your high school counselor or a college financial aid administrator whether
they’ve heard of the organization and know it’s legitimate. In
many cases, such invitations are a way to get you and your parents to come
listen to a sales pitch: the company wants you to pay for advice on scholarships
and other funding.

Don’t believe anyone
who tells you the information they offer can’t be found anywhere else.
You can get free advice from a variety of sources. The best places to start
are your high school counselor or a college financial aid administrator.